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Hungary proposes intergovernmental team on Ukraine education law

Hungary has proposed that an intergovernmental working group should be set up to oversee the implementation of the Venice Commission’s recommendations concerning Ukraine’s new education law, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in New York on Tuesday.

Szijjarto is in New York to attend a session of the United Nations Security Council focusing on the situation in Ukraine.

Speaking to MTI ahead of a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin, Szijjarto said that “by violating the rights of its Hungarian national minority, Ukraine has created a situation that is bad for everyone.”

“It’s bad for Ukraine, bad for Hungary, but primarily it’s bad for the minority groups living in Ukraine, including Transcarpathia Hungarians,”

the minister said.

“Hungary isn’t interested in seeking trouble, but rather in finding a solution to this situation that’s bad for everyone,” Szijjarto said. Hungary wants Transcarpathia Hungarians to regain their acquired rights, he added.

“We also want to return to our policy that in Ukraine’s case was built on supporting our neighbours’ European and Euro-Atlantic integration.”

This is why Hungary has proposed to the Ukrainian government the establishment of an intergovernmental working group that would oversee the implementation of the Venice Commission’s decisions concerning Ukraine, Szijjarto said. He noted that the commission had ruled that the Ukrainian government should consult the country’s minority groups on laws that concern them and cannot curtail their acquired rights.

Hungary will gladly cooperate with Ukraine on monitoring the implementation of the Venice Commission’s decisions, Szijjarto said. He added that Hungary was ready to help Ukriane in making sure that the rights of Transcarpathia Hungarians are not violated in the future.

Szijjarto is meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC on Wednesday, a state secretary of the ministry said. The talks are to be the first in a long time between high-ranking officials of the two strategic partners and NATO allies, Tamas Menczer said. Talks will focus on bilateral relations, the fight against terrorism and current challenges faced by Hungary and the US, he said.